Social media is now a more powerful advertising tool than ever, with marketing campaigns reaching out to their consumers on an increasingly intimate level of engagement.
Social media campaigns in the right hands can become a source of entertainment, a springboard for inspiration and a starting point for reflective thought; here are three of the most successful such campaigns that show real understanding of consumers and what captures their interest.
Burger King Whopper The Whopper Sacrifice social media campaign may have damaged a few meaningless relationships and caused Facebook to shut the campaign down, citing privacy issues, but it certainly got people engaging with both the brand and Facebook.
The fast food giant Burger King offered any Facebook user a free BK Whopper if they deleted 10 of their friends on the social media site, and within just seven days over 233,000 people had been socially 'sacrificed' and told that their acquaintance had chosen a delicious grilled beefburger over their friendship.
Who knows how far the campaign would have spread if it had not been shut down? In any case, it won numerous marketing awards in 2009.
Water is Life A popular Twitter hashtag was turned on its head in this thought-provoking campaign.
Water is Life launched a campaign they dubbed 'hashtag killer', which involved creating a video where people in Haiti read aloud tweets that included the #firstworldproblems hashtag.
The hashtag became popular in the UK as people joked about their trivial problems, but the Water is Life video exposed just how trivial they are in the setting of Haiti, where even getting clean water is difficult.
Using social media, the organisation managed to spread their message and generate donations too, reaching out to an audience and getting them to think deeply about their lives and those of others.
Dove The 'Real Beauty' message that is the focus of Dove's branding became a thought-provoking piece of art, literally, in the Real Beauty Sketches campaign.
A professional FBI sketch artist was enlisted by Dove, who drew two pictures of a number of everyday women.
The first was created with the women's descriptions of themselves, whilst the other was created from descriptions by total strangers, and the results showed that we are our own worst beauty critics.
As part of Dove's goal of redefining real beauty and boosting confidence within everyday people, the 2013 campaign went viral and was hugely successful on YouTube, even winning some of the top awards within the marketing world.
Social media campaigns in the right hands can become a source of entertainment, a springboard for inspiration and a starting point for reflective thought; here are three of the most successful such campaigns that show real understanding of consumers and what captures their interest.
Burger King Whopper The Whopper Sacrifice social media campaign may have damaged a few meaningless relationships and caused Facebook to shut the campaign down, citing privacy issues, but it certainly got people engaging with both the brand and Facebook.
The fast food giant Burger King offered any Facebook user a free BK Whopper if they deleted 10 of their friends on the social media site, and within just seven days over 233,000 people had been socially 'sacrificed' and told that their acquaintance had chosen a delicious grilled beefburger over their friendship.
Who knows how far the campaign would have spread if it had not been shut down? In any case, it won numerous marketing awards in 2009.
Water is Life A popular Twitter hashtag was turned on its head in this thought-provoking campaign.
Water is Life launched a campaign they dubbed 'hashtag killer', which involved creating a video where people in Haiti read aloud tweets that included the #firstworldproblems hashtag.
The hashtag became popular in the UK as people joked about their trivial problems, but the Water is Life video exposed just how trivial they are in the setting of Haiti, where even getting clean water is difficult.
Using social media, the organisation managed to spread their message and generate donations too, reaching out to an audience and getting them to think deeply about their lives and those of others.
Dove The 'Real Beauty' message that is the focus of Dove's branding became a thought-provoking piece of art, literally, in the Real Beauty Sketches campaign.
A professional FBI sketch artist was enlisted by Dove, who drew two pictures of a number of everyday women.
The first was created with the women's descriptions of themselves, whilst the other was created from descriptions by total strangers, and the results showed that we are our own worst beauty critics.
As part of Dove's goal of redefining real beauty and boosting confidence within everyday people, the 2013 campaign went viral and was hugely successful on YouTube, even winning some of the top awards within the marketing world.
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